New Hampshire Family Law Blog : New Hampshire Divorce Lawyer & Attorney : Crusco Law Firm : Family Law, Custody, Child Support : Manchester, New Hampshire, Massachusetts

Question:

My wife cheated on me and I want to sue her and her new boyfriend for alienation of affections. How do I proceed?

Answer:

An alienation of affection claim is a lawsuit where a spouse sues a third party who is allegedly responsible for the destruction of the marriage. There are three elements that a plaintiff must prove:

1)      The marriage entailed love between the spouses in some degree;

2)      The spousal love was alienated and destroyed; and

3)      Defendant’s willful and malicious conduct contributed to or caused the loss of affection.

However, New Hampshire no longer allows actions for alienation of affection pursuant to NH RSA 460:2 which reads: “No damages shall be allowed to either spouse in any action based on alienation of the affections of the other spouse.” The only states to still allow alienation of affection law suits are: Hawaii, Illinois, Mississippi, New Mexico, North Carolina, South Dakota, and Utah.

Although New Hampshire does not recognize alienation of affection as a cause of action, New Hampshire is a state that allows fault grounds, such as adultery, in a divorce. Read more here about fault grounds.

Crusco Law Office Law Clerk Marisa L. Ulloa contributed to this post.

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Managing a family schedule from two households can be quite a chore. Online parenting software may be the answer for some separated or divorced parents to communicate and co-manage their children’s schedules. The services, which are either internet based or downloadable, offer a wide range of options for parents to choose from. The most complex have photo sharing, family journals, time-tracking, expense logs and more. These are generally fee based services. Others are simply online calendars geared towards family planning and scheduling but may not meet the needs of parents who have a difficult time communicating with each other.

Our Family Wizard: This particular service is geared towards separated, divorced and living apart parents. All information saved to the site is backed-up and secure. This is a service that would be useful to parents who find that their challenge is communicating with one another.

o   Features:

The parent account allows access to:

Private and Shared Family Calendar

Message Board

Notifications and Reminder

Journal

Information Bank

Important Documents

Expense Log

Family Resource Section

E-Coupons

The child account allows each child their own account with access to:

Shared Family Calendar

Message Board

Create and View Journal Entries

Receive Notifications and Reminders

o   Price:

      $55.00 for six months (approx. $9.17/month)

      $99.00 for one year (approx. $8.25/month)

                              $179.00 for two years (approx $7.46/month)

ParentingTime.net: This is the home of OPTIMAL which is the Online Parenting Time Information Manager and Access Log. OPTIMAL is a one year subscription based service which is geared for custody arrangements. Its central focus is on the “Tracker” module which records and tracks parenting.

o   Features:

Custody calendar

Child Support Tracker

Private Message Center

Graphs & Statistics

Print & Export

Tasks & Notes

Time Tracker

Private Journal

‘At a Glance’ Homepage

Contacts & Address Book

Personal Preferences

Guest User Features

o   Price:

$149.95 for a 1-year unlimited access subscription billed yearly

JointParents.com: This service is marketed as having been developed by co-parents and is said to be easy to use and readily accessible. There is a Free 30 day Trial Period for interested users.

o   Features:

Custody Calendar (Reminders, recurring events, email approvals for custody changes; color coded parenting days)

Daily Routine (Household rules and routines)

Contact Manager (Allow others to access)

Diary (History of occurrences between co-parents and children)

Message Board

Medical Manager

Multiple Families (Manage children with one or multiple families)

Overnight Reporting (Displays # of overnights with child)

Photos

Expense Tracking (Enter and track expenses, view total owed, show paid/not paid, email notification)

o   Price:

30 day free trial available

$9.95/monthly payments

$99.50/annually (2 months free)

FamilyCrossings.com: This online service is not solely directed towards separated, divorced and living apart parents, but rather a service that provides each family with its own website. You can visualize family data with maps, time lines and tag clouds. Family Crossings offers both a free and subscription service.

o   Features:

Free: This version offers less storage space and has sponsor   advertisements visible. Families can access a number of features that could be helpful in family organizing and information sharing.

News

Photos

Calendar

Address Book

Live IM style chat

Gift Center

Storage – 150MB

Premium: Families have more storage space and no advertisements. There are also six more features than the free version. You can also add storage space if need be.

News

Photos

Calendar

Address Book

Live IM style chat

Gift Center

Family history

Family Database

Wish List

Family Polls

Special Offers

Games

Storage – 250MB

o   Prices:

The premium version is $9.95/month

CustodyToolbox.com: This is a downloadable Windows program that is designed for custody situations.

o   Features:

Calendar

Child Information

Journal

Parenting-time Report

To-Do List

Address Book

o   Price:

15 day free trial available

$49.95 to purchase the software

Cozi.com: This is a free online service that helps manage a family’s schedule. This is not geared specifically towards divorced, separated or living apart parents.

o   Features:

§  Family Calendar

§  Customizable Lists

§  Reminders & Messages

§  Mobile access

§  Journal

§  Photo collage

§  Outlook sync

o   Price:

§  Free

Crusco Law Office Law Clerk Marisa L. Ulloa contributed to this post.

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I read a post today that got me thinking from Attorney Ryan McKeen at his A Connecticut Law Blog titled Is CT's civil union statute constitutional? Attorney McKeen ponders whether the civil union statute in Connecticut is unconstituional because it does not allow opposite sex couples to enter into a civil union. It is an interesting question that may never be answered. It also begs the question, should there be some form of civil union for opposite sex couples?

If an unmarried, homeowning couple with a child breaks up, the complexity of disentangling after the relationship ends can be frustrating. If the couple cannot agree on how to separate their property and how to parent their child, they would have to go to three different courts to resolve all the issues. The couple would head to Superior Court or the Family Division for parenting and child support, to Probate Court to resolve the home issue, and file an equity action in Superior Court regarding any disputed personal property such as a family pet.

Wouldn't some kind of legal relationship the couple could enter into make the breakup easier on the family? At the same time, opposite sex couples do have the option to marry and benefit from the rights that marriage entails, but they choose not to. What do you think?

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Although the country’s attention was, for the most part, focused upon the presidential election on November 4^th, there were several ballot questions across the country regarding same-sex marriage. The most high profile was Proposition 8 in California, a ballot measure that passed and  amended the state constitution to define marriage as between one man and one woman. The passage of Prop 8 reverses In Re Marriage Cases, the California Supreme Court case that legalized same-sex marriage in the state this past June. Arizona and Florida also passed similar measures on November 4th, defining marriage as between one man and one woman with Prop 102 and Prop 2 respectively.

The election results highlight the vast divide throughout the country over same-sex marriage, with over twenty five states now banning same-sex marriage, two states allowing same-sex marriage and several states, including New Hampshire, allowing some form of civil union or domestic partnership. Additionally on a national level, the Federal Defense of Marriage Act defines marriage as it pertains to any Act of Congress or administrative rulings and regulations as “only a legal union between one man and one woman as husband and wife, and the word `spouse' refers only to a person of the opposite sex who is a husband or a wife.” With the wide disparity of laws from state to state, the inconsistency can leave families in legal limbo without a way to dissolve a legal relationship.

New Hampshire residents, thanks to the civil union statute, will not be left in legal limbo. If you have been married in another jurisdiction, or entered into a civil union, you may dissolve the relationship as though it were a civil union in New Hampshire.

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